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Analyst: Qualcomm in, Intel out of iPhone 5
Dylan McGrath
SAN FRANCISCO—Qualcomm Inc. has snagged the baseband socket on the next Apple Inc. iPhone, displacing Intel Corp., according to Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets Corp.
Rumors have been circulating since last year that Qualcomm be the baseband supplier to iPhone 5. The incumbent iPhone baseband supplier was the Infineon wireless unit, which was acquired by Intel last year. Qualcomm already supplies the baseband to the CDMA version of the iPhone 4, but not the original GSM version of the device.
Citing checks with contacts, Berger said in a report circulated Thursday (June 2) that production of iPhone 5—codenamed N94—will reach 8 million units in the third quarter of this year, with Qualcomm set to provide a CDMA and WCDMA enabled baseband that will allow Apple to streamline production of the iPhone for various countries, making iPhone 5 a "world phone."
Qualcomm began supplying basebands into the CDMA-based iPhone 4 late in the fourth quarter of 2010 or in the first quarter of this year, Berger said, good for about $120 million to $170 million work of revenue this year. Picking up the non-CDMA iPhones could mean another 80 million baseband units for Qualcomm, good for about $800 million in revenue, Berger said.
FBR maintains an "outperform" rating and $70 price target on Qualcomm's stock. The stock traded at $57.80 early Friday.
